


Alone on Alternia [abandoned]

by DJVennalyn



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Attempted Rape, Death, F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, Other, i'll add more as they come up
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-18
Updated: 2016-06-12
Packaged: 2018-04-04 23:15:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4156632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DJVennalyn/pseuds/DJVennalyn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A fanfiction following the ancestors on Alternia. I'll be following the basic storyline that we know and fleshing it out with details as I go. This is a very rough draft and when I finish the basic writing for everything I'll go back and add more detail and clean it up.</p>
<p>EDIT 6/12: I've rewritten the fic and I'm reposting a better version under the same name on my account.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I use the names of the Beforus trolls for the names of the characters, because there's no way they had no other name than the ones they were known widely as.

Porrim shifted her carrying sack to a more comfortable position on her hip and glanced around the large cavern, looking for the special mineral she had been sent to collect for the grub mother. 'I need to return with this soon, where is it?' she thought to herself. She walked on in several miles, still searching, with no sound to accompany her except for the occasional squeal of a grub facing it's trials and the steady drip from the stalactites above. Porrim glanced up in irritation, as a drop of water hit her nose, wrinkling it in irritation. Then she stopped. 'The mineral! It was right above my head the whole time!' she thought gleefully. Porrim glanced around for a stalactite with a sufficient stalagmite beneath it, and scampered nimbly across the rocks towards it. She was beginning to climb when she heard a high, keening wail, one that shouldn't be heard this late in the season. She froze. If a lupus came by now to collect the young grub, she would be dead.

The wail continued for several minutes, despite the fact that a lusus sympathetic to this grub's blood color should have come by now. Porrim glanced around warily, looking to see if there was one waiting to kill her. When it was evident that there wasn't one, she climbed down from the stalagmite and jogged over to the edge of the pit where the wailing had come from. She peered down into it and struggled to make something out from the shadowy depths. The grub stopped wailing when it noticed her, and stood very still. Porrim glanced around one last time, and slid into the deep crater. the bottom was sticky with viscous fluid, but relatively flat. Porrim searched the crater for the grub, her Jade eyes adjusting to the dim light quickly.

It was finally a small squeak that alerted her to the presence of the grub. It was hiding behind the shattered remnants of it's own dirty egg. She tenderly reached out and picked it up, careful to not squish it. She brought it up to where she could see and gasped, almost dropping the grub. At first it had seemed to be a rust blood but, upon further investigation, was a bright red hue that Porrim had never even heard of. "No wonder no lusus came to you little one." Porrim murmured to the grub. "What'll I do with you?" the grub didn't answer, just looking at her with wide, ruby eyes. "Well I can't just leave you here…" she hesitated, her maternal instinct kicking in. "but I can't keep you either."

The grub's aural canals twitched, and it's head glanced up and looked towards the direction Porrim had come from, towards the Mother Grub where all of the Jadebloods resided. Porrim whipped her head around and listened intently for anything that the grub's heightened hearing could pick up that she could not. After a moment of the usual silence, a quiet rumbling of footsteps became evident. "Fuck. Looks like my decision has been made for me." Porrim looked back at the grub in her arms, and then back up at the rapidly approaching footsteps. She deliberated for a moment longer, but the threat of what would happen just for coming near the grub was too great. Tucking the grub carefully into her carrying sack resting comfortably at her hip, she turned away from the caverns she had lived her whole life in. She ran out of the crater and towards the exit. The footsteps behind her sped up, but Porrim was fast and had a head start. She was close to the exit to the outside. The one that only grubs who've passed the trial and their lusii are supposed to pass through. The one that she was about to escape through.

Porrim saw it and put on one final burst of speed, leaving her pursuers in the dust. Even if they had been able to catch up, once she was out of the caverns she was safe. Jadebloods weren't allowed to leave the caverns for any reason no matter what on pain of death. She pushed out of the opening into the dim moonlight, and a chill rand down her spine. "What on Alternia have I just done?" she asked the night sky. Looking at the moon for the first time in her life, she only sighed. "Mother Grub forgive me." Porrim pulled the grub out of her bag. it curled it's legs together, and looking at her with wide eyes it purred. "What am I going to do with you?" she asked the grub. It, being a grub, didn't answer. She sighed again, not having expected it to. "What am I to call you?" Porrim searched her mind for a suitable name. "How about…Kankri? Yes, I think Kankri sounds good. Don't worry baby kankri, mama Porrim's gonna take care of you." She held the grub tight and looked towards the horizon. After glancing back at the caverns one last time to last her a lifetime, she began walking towards the horizon. "I'll be your family now…"


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some very early grub!signless shenanigans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow I have had this chapter written for literally months, but I didn't realize I had forgotten to post it! Well here it is enjoy.

Porrim drew the cloak around her, and checked to make sure the grub was safely tucked into her carrying sack. She moved quietly from stall to stall, weaving in and out of various low-blooded trolls. The highest blood color that could be seen in this part of town so far from the docks was honey-colored, no one higher than that was stupid or desperate enough to come here and practically hand themselves over to be mugged and murdered. 

Porrim quietly selected several items and left the money with the sellertroll before slipping off to the next stall, her purchases clutched close to her body in a carrier basket, eyes always wary of pickpockets and street urchins that might try and lift her carrying sack or basket off of her. She kept her head down and her hood up, not wanting to reveal the extravagant garb of the keepers of the Mother Grub that she was still wearing.

She walked past an alley and heard a group of drunken rust-blooded trolls catcalling her. She growled and kept walking, never moving her eyes from her path. She moved onto the next stall and made her selections. She was about to put the money down in front of the sellertroll, but he stopped her with his wrinkled hand. “No, it’s gonna cost you more than that doll.” he rasped, a slimy grin on his face. 

Porrim shuddered. “This is the price you’re advertising it for, this is the price I’ll pay.” she said with as much confidence as she could muster. 

“See, that’s not how it works pretty lady. The price just went up.” the rust blood leaned forwards, and Porrim could feel his breath hot on her face, and smell the stench of rotting food. “If you can’t afford it, there are always…other ways to pay.” he said with a meaningful glance downwards. Porrim bristled.

She threw the cloth she had been holding back down onto the stall. “I would never pay you like that, not in the lifetime of a fish troll.” she spat.

He shrugged and leaned back nonchalantly. “Fine then, whatever floats your boat lady. But if you change your mind…well you know where to find me.” he said with a wink.

Porrim shuddered and made her way quickly away from his stall and back out of the marketplace into the wild surrounding the town. She wanted to get away from that creepy troll as fast as she could, on top of the fact that it looked like it might rain soon and she needed to make a shelter.

Porrim huddled in the small lean-to made of broken trees as the storm raged around them. The flimsy wood of the lean-to didn’t do much in ways of protection, and she was doing her best to shelter the grub from the wind and rain. ‘Did I do the right thing? Is this really worth it?’ she wondered as another piece of wood was flung at her back by the raging wind. Porrim glanced down at the miraculously sleeping bundle in her arms and smiled. ‘For Kankri, yes.’ 

The storm carried on for at least another hour, if not more. When it was over it was all Porrim could do to somewhat rebuild their shoddy shelter before falling asleep holding Kankri in her arms. He wasn’t the tiny grub she had left the cavern with only a few months ago; he had grown somewhat and looked like he was going to pupate in only a little longer. When she had found him he should’ve been much bigger already, but due to his lack of a lusus he had been severely malnourished. Now it wasn’t much easier to feed him properly, but Porrim gave him almost all of the food she caught and bartered for in towns.

What seemed like only moments later to Porrim she was awoken by a noise nearby. She draped her cloak over Kankri to hide him before sitting up to assess the danger. She crawled out of the lean-to that was surprisingly still standing and looked around to see what had caused the sound. The rustling continued. Porrim followed it into the bushes, her small bone knife held at the ready. She heard a noise directly behind her and turned, immediately being impaled by a spear. She gasped, clutching her stomach. The spear was roughly pulled out and there was brutish laughter from all sides of her. Four rust-blooded trolls emerged from the foliage around her. 

They smirked, and one of them spoke. “We heard you was disrespectin’ Marcus earlier. Well, this is what happens to those who disrespect him.”

“They get taken out!” one of them jumped forwards with excitement. A glare from the others shut him up and he stepped back into his former position.

“Now we’re gonna be nice and leave you here to die instead of bringin’ you back to have some fun with. Enjoy your death, you—“ he glanced down to call her by the color of your blood and froze. “Shit, man, we killed a jadeblood! We’re gonna get in so much trouble if anyone finds out, run!” the leader shouted, and the group scattered back to the town.

“Idiots.” she grumbled. “If they had any common sense in their thinkpan the would’ve hid my body.” she grinned mirthlessly. “Looks like this is it.” she stumbled back to the lean-to to check on Kankri one last time. She could already feel the life leaving her as she looked on the sleeping grub. “Goodbye…Kankri…” Porrim closed her eyes, laying with one hand on the grub that she had, in the end, sacrificed her life for. She let out one last rattling breath, and she died.

Several hours later, she was awoken by the sound of a grub shrieking in her ear. Porrim sat up and groaned. “What the heck? Didn’t I die?” she asked no one in particular, looking at her stomach. Her clothes were torn and bloodstained where she had been stabbed, but there was no cut. She reached out absentmindedly to stroke the hungry grub beside her and was shocked to see something strange out of the corner of her eye. She looked at her arm. “I’m…glowing?” she asked. Suddenly, it dawned on her. Something she had forgotten since she left the caverns not so long ago. “I’m a rainbow drinker! I forgot that when a Jadeblood dies by unnatural causes they come back as rainbow drinkers to continue their care of the Mother Grub!” she smacked a hand to her forehead. “How could I be so forgetful!” 

Kankri nudged at her leg insistently and keened, a high, wailing note. Porrim’s maternal instincts kicked in. “Alright, let’s get you some food.” and for the moment, she didn’t think about the implications of being a rainbow drinker, only that she was still alive to take care of Kankri for another day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this one is also v short, the next chapter (which I've scheduled to be posted in about a week since it's odne now) is much longer I purromise.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I've had so much fuss uploading this chapter it doesn't even get a summary.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know if you want more young signless and disciple or if you want me to skip straight to when they're older and Signless is preaching!

-several sweeps later-  
Porrim held Kankri close to her as they walked through the crowded marketplace. Every now and then she would tug his cowl up a little bit to make sure that it wasn’t slipping down, and check that everything they had was still in their possession. They went from stall to stall, bartering as best they could without drawing attention to themselves, something Porrim had become quite good at over time. 

They had been walking in the marketplace for a while when there was a tug on the back of Porrim’s cloak. “Kankri, did you need something?” she knelt down and asked the young troll. 

He shook his head. “No, that wasn’t me. It was another troll, she disappeared into that alleyway.” Porrim felt her heart stop cold. She stood up and briskly walked over the the alley that Kankri had pointed out, keeping him close by her side as she wove through traffic.

She walked cautiously into the alleyway, her eyes adjusting to the dark quickly. She scanned the alleyway until she spotted a small figure crouching on a mat underneath a box, looking at her with wide eyes. she placed Kankri out of sight from both the road and the troll. “Stay here.” she whispered. 

Having put her young charge safely out of the way, she turned to the figure crouching in the shadows and approached cautiously. After a few steps, the girl hissed. Porrim stopped, holding her hands out placatingly in front of her. “I’m not here to hurt you, I just want to help.” after a moment of no response from the child she walked slowly a little closer. The girl scooted back farther into the corner. Porrim stopped and crouched slowly down, still holding her hands out in a flaming gesture. They stayed there for a moment, locked in a staring match. “Hello, I am called Porrim. What is your name?” she asked the young troll.

The troll girl seemed to be thinking. After a moment, she decided that telling the stranger her name wasn’t going to hurt. “Meulin. And I’m not afraid of you!” she shouted, crossing her arms bravely, even though she was quivering like a leaf. 

Porrim smiled welcomingly. “Hello Meulin, it is a pleasure to meet you.” she held out her hand to shake. Merlin was hesitant and gingerly shook Porrim’s hand. “Where is your lusus Meulin?” she asked.

Meulin looked away, but Porrim could see the tears stinging her eyes. “My lusus is dead. That’s why I’m here.” she said.

Porrim frowned. “That is awful, I am truly sorry.”

Meulin clenched her fists. “Yeah, well sorry isn’t going to get me a new lusus.” she retorted.

Porrim thought for a moment. “No,” she said slowly. “but I may have a solution.” Merlin eyed her critically. “I could be your lusus, you could travel with me.” Porrim’s heart pounded, unsure of whether or not this was the best choice. “I’ve already got another troll about your age in my protection.” she motioned to Kankri to come towards them. Meulin jumped in surprise as he emerged from behind a stack of boxes. “Meulin, this is Kankri. I’ve raised him since he was a grub.”

Kankri strode confidently forwards and offered a hand to the troll still crouched in the corner. “It is a pleasure to meet you Meulin, my name is Kankri.”

Meulin blushed as she shook his hand, her cheeks being colored a ruddy olive green. She thought it over for a moment before responding. “I-I suppose I will travel with mew. But not beclaws you asked! Only beclaws I have nothing better to do. If mew turn out to be creepy, I’m ditching mew right away!” she crossed her arms and huffed. 

Porrim smiled. “But of course. Now, let’s finish shopping together. Now that we’ve got three mouths to feed we’re going to need extra food! And I want to get you some fabric for new cloths Meulin, so you’ll have to pick out something you like, okay?” she asked.

Meulin tried and failed to hide her excited smile. “Really? Thank mew so much!” she jumped up and bounced slightly on the balls of her feet. The ratty rags she was in fell limply around her. 

“It’s no problem darling, I need to make some new leggings for Kankri anyway. Now come, let’s get our shopping done before daybreak.” She led the two younger trolls out of the alley, smiling as they began chatting animatedly. ‘I cannot seem to turn down young trolls in need. It’ll be good for Kankri to have a companion his own age though, and I think Meulin is truly a good girl under all that grime. She definitely needs a bath though…I’ll have to take care of that. I’ll also need to know what color blood she has, but that can wait. For now, Kankri is smiling for the first time in a long time.’

Porrim led Kankri and Meulin back to where they had constructed a small hive-like structure for them to live in while they were near this town. Porrim had grown in her knowledge of hivebuilding since she had first escaped, now able to build a sturdy hive in only a few minutes. “Kankri, wait here okay? I’m going to take Meulin to the river to get cleaned up. We should be back in around an hour. 

Kankri nodded his assent and set to organizing the provisions they had gotten at the marked. “Come on Meulin, let’s get you clean.” They walked a few minutes to a nearby stream. Meulin stopped a few feet from the stream. Porrim turned to her. “What’s wrong love?” she asked.

Meulin shook her head. “I don’t like water.” 

Porrim furrowed her brow. “You don’t like…water? How do you get clean then?” she asked, her confusion evident on her face and in her voice.

“My lusus used to give me tongue baths. I had a purrbeast lusus. It didn’t like water and neither do I.” she said stubbornly.

“But Meulin, you need to get clean!” Meulin shook her head obstinately. Then ensued a sort of tug-of-war to attempt to get Meulin in the water, and farther struggling once she was in there. She yowled and screamed when the water touched her, and Porrim was getting drenched trying to clean her off. The waster was brown with dirt around where they were tussling, and Meulin seemed to have no intent of letting up any time soon but Porrim was likewise determined.

Soon enough, Meulin was released, and she scampered up yowling onto the shore. She shook her entire self off and shot Porrim a distrustful look through her curtains of tangled, soggy hair. Proem tried her hardest to hold back laughter, but was failing somewhat miserably. “Okay, let’s get you dried off and brush your hair now.” she said, still laughing. Merlin wheeled back. 

“No, I’m clean enough! I don’t need mew yanking at my hair now too!” the young troll grabbed at her hair protectively and bared her fangs at Porrim.

Porrim sighed, seeing that this was going to go nowhere. “Fine, but at least let me get you dried off. You’re going to have to wear your old clothes for just a bit while I make you some new ones.” Porrim picked up the discarded clothing scattered around the bank.

Meulin grabbed at her ratty shirt. “What’s wrong with what I already have?”

Porrim’s eyes widened. “Young one! Your clothes are disgusting and ripped! Of course you need new ones, you can’t possibly run about wearing these rags. Not in my presence at least!”

Meulin pouted. “But those were from my lusus…” she turned and gave big pouting eyes at Porrim.

Porrim tried to hold firm, but wavered slightly. “Well…how about this, I’ll sew a scrap of the fabric from your old clothes into your new ones so that your lusus is with you always. Does that sound like a worthy compromise?” she squatted down to Meulin’s level. Meulin thought about it for a moment before nodding decisively. “Good. Now put these on and let’s go back to the tent, Kankri should have a fire going by now.” 

Meulin skipped along ahead of Porrim on the way back to the camp, her bushy hair bouncing behind her. “Kankri~!” she called out as the camp came into view. “Kankri let’s play!” she ran forwards and pounced onto the young mutant sitting by the fire. 

His eyes widened as he saw her coming. “No-wait-don’t-ahhhh!” he shouted as they went tumbling away a short distance. Porrim laughed and walked over to the fire to start the food, watching as the two young trolls got to know each other better. 

Porrim sat by the fire, stitching together a dress for Meulin while the two young trolls napped by the fire. The sky was growing lighter, and soon the first hues of pink that signaled the coming day would ooze over the sky. ‘I’ll finish hemming this, then I’ll move them into the tent.’ Porrim thought.

She pulled the needle through the fabric and tugged, stopping in surprise when it didn’t pull through as far as it should. She picked up the fabric and looked at the back in irritation. The cheap thread had tangled into a messy knot. Porrim growled in frustration and picked at it with her sharp fingernails. As she was finally loosening the knot, she heard Kankri waking up by the fire. He sat up abruptly, and Meulin jolted awake in reaction to his movement. “Wha-what’s going on!” she exclaimed.

“It’s fine, I just woke up from a dream.” kankri said to the frightened younger troll. Porrim sat back and resumed her sewing quietly. The two younger trolls didn’t seem to notice her at all.

“What kind of a dream?” Meulin asked, sitting cross-legged next to Kankri.

He shrugged. “It’s a dream I’ve been having since I was a young grub. I’m on another planet, an alternate version of ours, if you will. It’s just like ours except much less violent. They’re governed by a benevolent ruler, and not restrained by the hemocaste. It still exists but not as much stock is held towards it. It exists in a time of peace and happiness for all, where one wouldn’t need to fear culling due to blood colour.” it was a dream Porrim had heard many times; and the beginning of which she knew Kankri hoped to bring about in their time. The next part was never quite as nice as the first though, and Porrim wouldn’t wish that on her worst enemy much less Kankri. “Then the dream changed, like it always seems to. I was back here, on Alternia at a much older age. You were there also, as was Porrim and another troll who I don’t know now, but I clearly did in the dream. My hands were strung above me in irons, and I could feel them burning into my wrists. They were so hot I could hardly stand it.” he trailed off, his brow furrowed in concentration before picking back up again. “I had been brought in for culling. Her Imperial Condescension was there, and as was a blue-blooded executioner. I awoke when his arrow pierced my side.”

Meulin looked at him, agape. “Why would you be brought in for culling?” her eyes were wide, and she was leaning ever so slightly towards Kankri.

Kankri looked unsure for a moment, and then he held a finger to his lips. “Can you keep a secret? Proem says I’m not supposed to tell anyone, but I think I can trust you.” Meulin nodded, eyes wide and mouth pinched tightly shut. “I’m a mutant. My blood is bright red, much to bright to be acceptable on the hemospectrum or to pass as a rust blood.” he looked earnestly at Meulin.

Meulin grinned widely and jumped on him with a hug. “That doesn’t change anything between us, and I purromise I won’t tell anyone about your blood color!” she whisper-yelled. Kankri looked relieved. “Ooh, I know! How about in the evening you tell me more about your dream world? The good one of course!” 

“Of course I will, but we should probably sleep now. I would be glad to discuss it at great length with you in the evening.” the young trolls talked for a little bit longer before settling down; Meulin curled up like a purrbeast to Kankri’s side. Porrim smiled down at the two sleeping trolls before gently pulling up the thin blanket over the two of them and kissing each gently on the forehead. 

“Sleep well, young ones. Someday I know that your dreams will come true, and you will create a world where your ancestors would be proud to live in.” Porrim smiled before going back to her sewing, shifting the thick tent above them so that none of the harmful morning light filtered in through the flaps. She fell into an easy rhythm, accompanied by the light breathing of her two charges and the occasional purr or growl from them. 

The next evening Kankri did indeed tell Meulin all about his dream for a perfect Alternia, and she sat listening with rapture for the better part of an hour, hanging onto his every word like it was gospel of some sort. After Kankri managed to somehow talk himself out, he and Meulin played by the riverbanks together. Meulin’s initial mistrust seemed to have disappeared, replaced by what seemed to be an already close friendship with Kankri. In between the splashes and shrieks of them playing, Porrim could hear Kankri and Meulin chattering excitedly. 

“Meulin darling come here, I have something for you!” Porrim called out, standing at the entrance to the tent. 

“Coming Porrim!” Meulin called towards her as she and Kankri climbed out of the river and came running over to her with excitement. Porrim squatted down and held out what she had stayed up all day sewing for Meulin; a black dress with her symbol that Porrim had spotted almost faded on her shirt sewn artistically onto it. Meulin gasped, her eyes wide. “Is that for me?” Porrim nodded, a knowing smile on her face. “Thank you thank you thank you!” Meulin squealed, grabbing it and hugging it to her damp chest, eyes sparkling. “I love it so much!” she bounced slightly on the balls of her feet and rushed to the tent to change into it.

A minute later she emerged, knew outfit on and her face glowing with happiness. “It’s pawsitivley purrfect! Thank mew so much Purrim!” she squealed, adding as many cat puns as she could to her sentence in her excitement. 

Porrim smiled graciously. “Any time. Now back your things loves, we’re moving camp again. We leave in an hour.” She stood, all business now that the fun was finished. The three trolls began packing and left within the hour for their next location, just as Porrim had instructed.


	4. Incomplete

Essentially, I'm abandoning this particular fanfiction. I'm rewriting it and posting it again under the same name. This fanfiction was ill-written and could use a lot more detail, so I'll be supplying that in the new one. thank you to those who commented and left kudos on this one, the new one I promise will be far better.

**Author's Note:**

> My apologies, this first chapter is incredibly short. The next is a little longer, and the one after that is even longer. I should know. I've already written them.


End file.
